This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Whenever there is a lunch party at home I love to serve hot and spicy Bisibele Bath as the main dish. Tahir Vadai is another special dish - especially during Summer - which goes very well with the spicy Bisibele Bath. Today being a cold and rainy day I decided to substitute the cold Thair Vadais with a warm and spicy Morkuzhambu Bonda for our special guests who turned up for lunch. We could only get the picture of the finished dish as the guests were expected any moment!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE BONDAS

Black gram dal - 1 cup

Fresh ginger - 1 inch piece

Salt - 1 pinch

Oil - for frying

Thin butter milk with one pinch of salt for soaking

TO PREPARE THE BONDAS

1. Soak the black gram dal for an hour.

2. Drain, and grind with ginger and salt adding water little by little into a thick, smooth and fluffy batter.

3. Keep the thin butter milk ready.

4. Heat oil in a kadai.

5. Beat the batter well and drop a small scoop of batter into the hot oil and fry till it turns golden brown in colour. A batch of 4 or 5 Bondas can be fried at a time.

6. Drain the Bondas well and immediately immerse them in the salted butter milk.

7. Remove the soaked Bondas into a bowl before immersing the second batch.

INGREDIENTS AND

METHOD TO PREPARE MORKUZHAMBU

Bengal gram dal - 1 tbsp

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1 pinch

Mustard seeds - 1 pinch

1.(Soak all the above ingredients for at least half an hour till the dal becomes soft.)

Green chillies - 3

Fresh coconut gratings - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Rice flour - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

2.(Grind all the ingredients along with the soaked ingredients into a smooth paste and keep aside.)

Curds - 2 cups

3. Blend all the ground ingredients with curds.

FOR SEASONING

Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1 pinch

Broken Red chillies - 2

Curry leaves - a few

4. Heat oil in a seasoning ladle and add mustard seeds.

5. When the mustard seeds splutter add fenugreek seeds and fry till they are golden brown.

6.Add the broken red chillies and fry till they are crisp.

7. Finally add the curry leaves and pour the seasoning into the curd mixture.

8. Cook the mixture till it starts foaming and switch off flame.

TO FINISH THE DISH

9. Pour the hot Morkuzhambu over the soaked Bondas and garnish with coriander leaves.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The city is geared up to celebrate Ganesha Chaturti in full swing! Every home is busy preparing sweets and savouries to be offered to the Divine Charmer - Ganesha. Every year the Maha Ganapathi Temple at Malleswaram, Bangalore celebrates a ten day festival for Lord Ganesha during Ganesha Chaturti. Every day Ganesha is decked up in different alankaras. Decorations using fruits, dry fruits and vegetables are a grand feast for the eyes. Garlands strung with Vades, Kodubales, Chakkulis, Kajjayas and Karida Kadubu which adorn the Lord during pooja is later distributed to the devotees as prasadam.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

That was the time in my life when I was totally engrossed in books regarding Mahatma Gandhi's life and the freedom movement of India. I often shared few mini Gandhi Thata stories with my two year old talkative daughter. After the story session I made it a point to make her answer a few questions to test her comprehension. When she was posed with a question as to what Gandhi Thata ate, pat came the reply: "Kadlekai!" "Aattu Paal (goat's milk)!" she reverted with great enthusiasm even before I could finish my next question regarding his drink! She had to repeat her performance many times when the circle of audience started growing! Kadlekai/Peanuts was my little tot's favourite snack especially when it was made into undes. Roasted or boiled Kadlekai/Peanuts (also known as Badavara Badami, meaning poor man's almonds) are nutritious snacks by themselves. It is also savoured in Sambars, Sundals and chutneys. Starting from Super Markets, the local grocery stores to the small Petti Angadis (Miscellaneous shops) the ubiquitous Kadlekai Unde (Peanut Laddus) are sold everywhere.

Kadlekai Unde is a healthy sweet which can be savoured as a snack or as a dessert or even in between meals!

INGREDIENTS

Peanuts/Kadlekai - 1 glass

Powdered jaggery - 1 glass

METHOD

1. Roast the peanuts in a heavy bottomed kadai on medium flame till the skins are loosened.

2. Allow to cool and rub the nuts in between your palms to separate the husk.

3. Clean the peanuts and break them into chunks using a mixer.

4. Dissolve jaggery in one cup of warm water and filter.

5. Boil the filtered jaggery water in a thick bottomed kadai till it becomes thick and sticky.

(Drop little of the syrup in cold water. If the drop does not disintegrate, and if you are able to roll it into a ball using your thumb and forefinger the syrup is ready.)

6. Switch off flame and blend the prepared kadlekai/ peanuts into the syrup.

7. When it cools down a little and is comfortable to touch, it is ready to be shaped into undes/balls.

8. Grease your palms, scoop out a small portion of the mixture and shape it into an unde/ball.

9. Similarly shape more undes/balls using up the entire mixture. Place them apart till they are thoroughly cooled so that they do not stick together

10. The mixture might harden and lose stickiness towards the end. In that case heat the remaining mixture on low flame till the jaggery starts melting. Switch off flame and then shape the remaining undes/balls.

Allow the Kadlekai Undes / Peanut Balls to cool and then store them in a clean dry jar.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Our family had the opportunity to enjoy the delicious Sattu Laddus from Kolkatta recently. When I took a bite of the sweet I realized that it was the very same Pottukadalai laddu/Maa Laadu, a traditional sweet prepared in South Indian homes.The beautifully packaged Sattu Laddus with Silver Vark makeover have now become one of my family's favourite sweets.

Pottu Kadalai (Roasted Gram) known as Hurigadale or Putani in Kannada is a healthy snack by itself since it is rich in protein and dietary fiber. Those were the days when we siblings were a bunch of hyper active kids who loved to loot the garden or store room to find some nibbles all the time.We did not even spare the drums in which the Pottu Kadalai (Roasted Gram) husk was stocked for feeding our cows! We literally dived into the drums and foraged for the meager Pottu Kadalais which still stuck to some of the husks! We enjoyed munching the handful of Pottu Kadalais thus collected as we played in the garden!

Pottu Kadalai Urundai can be prepared in two methods. Roasted gram can be mixed with sticky jaggery syrup and then shaped into delicious balls / laddus. The second method of making the Pottukadalai Laddurundai is by using the Pottu Kadalai in its flour form. This is also known as Maa or Maavu Laadoo (Flour Laddu) in Tamil. I have used organic jaggery powder for its blood purifying properties and its mineral content which in turn enhances the nutritional value of the Pottu Kadalai Laddurundai.

INGREDIENTS

Roasted Gram / Pottu Kadalai - 1 glass

Organic jaggery powder - 1 glass

Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Edible camphor - 1/2 a pinch

Ghee or Olive oil - 1 cup

METHOD

1. Grind the roasted gram (Pottu Kadalai) into a fine and smooth powder.

2. Add cardamom, jaggery powder and edible camphor and blend them together once again.

3. Take the ground mixture in a bowl and add hot ghee/olive oil to it and mix thoroughly.

4. Take a scoop of the warm mixture and shape it into a Laddurundai (laddu balls).

5. Make Laddus similarly using all the flour and jaggery mixture while still warm.

6. If the mixture cools down or does not hold the shape, mix in little more hot ghee or olive oil and continue shaping the laddus.

Enjoy the nutritious Pottu Kadalai Laddurundai as when you crave for a sweet!

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.